PESC & PESPC R1 Review

The 2020 iRacing TAG Heuer Porsche Esports Super Cup has started – a fierce and exciting world championship competition over ten rounds where CoRe SimRacing drivers Sindre Setsaas and Carl Jansson are competing against the best simracers across the globe. The first round was held in Zandvoort – the format includes a 15 minutes heat race with a grid inversion of eight followed by a 30 minutes main race.

With Zandvoort’s technically demanding layout, overtaking opportunities were few and far between, putting even more emphasis than usual on qualifying performance. Setsaas would qualify an extremely promising P16 and despite only being a tenth slower, Jansson would grid up from the 32nd spot. The entire 40 car field was covered by less than 6 tenths of a second, highlighting the exceptional calibre of the drivers racing in the World Championship this season. Heat One saw mixed success for the two CoRe cars, with Setsaas finishing two spots higher than where he started in P14, while Jansson was caught up in a mid-pack pile up on the opening lap which saw his car receive heavy damage. Thankfully Carl was able to bring the car home in 33rd place. Heat Two saw similar fortunes for both drivers, with Sindre finishing in 13th position, despite an early tangle with Coanda Simsports Ricardo Castro Ledo as the Portugese driver got loose on the entrance to Turn 10, which saw Setsaas drop to as low as P18 in the opening stages. Unfortunately, Carl was again an innocent victim in another mid pack collision, resulting in his Orange and White Porsche facing backwards in the gravel in the exit of Turn 8. Thankfully, the car was still running, and eventually Carl brought the car home in 29th place.

With a short wait for the second round in a week’s time, both drivers will take lessons learned from their experiences on Saturday, and look to kick on at Circuit Catalunya in a weeks’ time.

S.Libeert on Podium in PESPC Round 1!

Same goes for the opening round of the PESPC series which took place at Circuit Park Zandvoort. With a brand new series in the relatively new Porsche 718 GT4, CoRe were going into the series with two drivers safely qualified for Saturdays super session, Thomas Gibson and Samuel Libeert with Santeri Kallunki narrowly missing out.

Qualifying was extremely close, as expected in a spec series, and saw a strong showing for both drivers, with Gibson and Libeert qualifying P2 and P3 respectively both within half a tenth of Frenchman Thomas Petitjean’s rapid pole time of a 1.42.725. With only a twenty-minute race, neither driver had an opportunity to relax and remained in 2nd and 3rd in the early laps, with Gibson harassing the rear of Petitjean’s 718 for the lead. A hard-charging Simone Maria Marceno from Altus Esports made a move on Libeert for P3 and sought about catching the leading pair. Unfortunately, Marceno’s aggression would be to Gibson’s detriment, and an over-enthusiastic lunge into Turn 9 would result in the Northern Irishman getting spun from second position. Libeert was there to pick up the pieces, and held on to third position over the line, defending brilliantly from Black Star Racings Kim Eriksson.

Gibson would thankfully recover to finish in 11th place but could only be left to wonder what could have been in the opening round. With a long season ahead, the CoRe drivers will look to the second round in a fortnights time to hopefully taste some more of the virtual champagne, at Circuit Catalunya on May 09th, live on the iRacing Esports network.

The broadcasts of races and heats of this Porsche Esports Super Cup and Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge round can be found here.